The present invention relates generally to a method for the hydrogenation or liquefaction of hydro-carbonaceous materials (Carb-Mat), and more particularly to a method of continuously converting such hydro-carbonaceous materials to volatile hydrocarbon products.
In past continuous processes for the direct liquefaction of hydro-carbonaceous materials, liquids are fed as-is and solids such as coal are ground, preheated, and fed as a slurry to one or more dissolvers, each of which involves a slurry residence time of thirty to sixty minutes, and the ash and insoluble organic matter from the feed in the resulting feed-derived liquid product must be removed. Doing so requires the use of filters, centrifuges, settlers, or other means of solids separation or a combination thereof. Each of these steps involves significant disadvantages. The high-pressure dissolver/reactor vessels must be very voluminous. The solids separation equipment is difficult to operate, bulky, and difficult to make environmentally acceptable. Moreover, the raw product must be fractionated and the resulting yield structure is not ideal. A simplified process is needed to eliminate these disadvantages.